Sen. James Inhofe piled on the EPA as it faces a 31 percent cut in President Donald Trump's first budget, charging on Thursday that the agency was "brainwashing" children with "propaganda."
The Republican Oklahoma senator, and supporter of current Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, made the comments to anchor Poppy Harlow during an appearance on CNN's "New Day."
"We are going to take all this stuff that comes out of the EPA that is brainwashing our kids, that is propaganda, things that aren't true, allegations," Inhofe said, though at the time he did not point to any specific examples.
Inhofe, a frequent climate change skeptic, made similar comments to conservative talk show host Eric Metaxas after the senator said that one of his grandchildren asked why he was a climate change denier, according to Newsweek.
"You know, our kids are being brainwashed? I never forget because I was the first one back in 2002 to tell the truth about the global warming stuff and all of that," Inhofe said.
"And my own granddaughter came home one day and said, … 'Popi, why is it you don't understand global warming?' I did some checking, and Eric, the stuff that they teach our kids nowadays, you have to un-brainwash them when they get out."
Inhofe once brought a snowball onto the Senate floor in 2015 in a presentation to deny climate change, noted the Washington Post.
Inhofe is chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, noted CNN. Trump's budget will increase cut EPA funding from $8.2 billion to $5.7 billion while cutting climate change program in other federal agencies, noted the Huffington Post.
Inhofe touted Pruitt, who as Oklahoma's attorney general sued the agency numerous times.
"I think he has done a good job," Inhofe said. "In fact, you can't find – I don't believe you can find an attorney general that doesn't think very highly of Scott Pruitt and the job he did as the attorney general for Oklahoma."
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